An NCTA boardroom committee, led by Comcast’s regulatory chief David Cohen and Advance Newhouse CEO Steve Miron, is preparing to launch a survey and analysis of cable-industry trade groups including SCTE, CTAM and WICT.
The cable industry’s top lobbying group last launched such a survey in 2010, providing, for example, information on which trade groups were perceived as most relevant (the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers finished on top) and which groups lagged in perceived importance. (Notably, bottom-place finisher, the Association of Cable Communicators, was subsequently rolled into CTAM.)
“As a result of ongoing changes that continue to alter the makeup of the industry that NCTA represents, the NCTA Board of Directors has created a committee to review the activities of organizations that are supported by the cable industry,” NCTA said in a statement. This process is similar to past NCTA Board review committees and its purpose is to gather valuable information that will enable both NCTA member companies and industry organizations to evaluate value of the programs and events historically and currently provided. The review committee work will continue for the coming months and we have no comment on the specifics of the review or potential outcome.”
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Notably, CableFax spoke to Maria Brennan, president and CEO of Women in Cable Telecommunications, one of the few group leaders who was in place the last time the NCTA conducted its survey.
“The thing I loved about it last time is I’m sure the thing I’m going to love about it this time. It’s like getting free research,” she said. “We’re getting very useable information and data from cable leaders that we wouldn’t otherwise be getting unless we commissioned our own survey.”
The NCTA review comes amid a period of renewed consolidation for the cable industry and subsequent disruption to trade group makeup and activities.
Now going under the official moniker of NCTA - The Internet Television Association, the industry’s top regulatory group has been itself looking for insight and partnerships as it struggles to stay relevant and reinvent itself. In September, NCTA announced the termination of its longtime signature trade show, last branded as INTX.